CREATIVE WRITING SKILLS

1. CREATIVE WRITING SKILLS CLS 1323

2. What is Creative Writing? • Creative writing is writing that involves the imagination & invention in form & content. • It means fiction, poetry, and drama. • The fiction may be long or short, the poetry may take many different forms, and the drama may be for the stage or the movies or television. • Uses made-up materials of one kind or another.

3. Why do we write? • not only to convey facts or info • mainly to please the reader or audience aesthetically by playing with the imagination • Some light & superficially entertaining - some very profound & can reveal great truths about the human condition (human nature & experience).

4. Types of writing • Fiction & Non Fiction • Technical & Popular (Popular culture) • Formal & Informal • Definition? • Examples?

5. Fiction vs. Non Fiction • A literary work is often a blend of fact & fiction. • A literal account of someone’s adventures in Vietnam is not a novel, it is a memoir or part of an autobiography. • The same author might be moved by certain experiences in Vietnam to create a work of fiction. In such works the facts can be adjusted to improve the story. • When writing fictionalised stories, the writer CANderive ideas from real life although real life stories come under the category of non-fiction.

6. Fiction vs. Non Fiction (Cont…) • Writers draw heavily on their own experiences. • Young writers are often advised to make use of the materials with which they are most familiar – and violate the truth in favor of a higher truth.

7. Who are the writers? • Objective writers describe in a more scientific manner. • Subjective writers depend more on the thoughts and feelings of their characters.